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My second trip to Milan was in 1992 with my grandparents. We were on our way to Bassignana from Munich. We took taxis and buses, but this was near the end of their lives and they were both forgetful and cranky. Strangely, I don’t remember other towns being so miserable on that trip, but I remember wandering around Milan yet again, unimpressed and eager to leave.

The next time I was there was July 2006 on my way to Florence from Paris, to visit Pieve di Cerreto for the first time. Gratefully, I only had to change trains, and I stayed in the station.

Shortly after that, in October, I drove Katya there. I dropped her off at the train station, but she had a couple hours to kill, so we found somewhere to have coffee. Not far from the train station, but driving there was stressful, and parking was even more worrying. Fortunately, it wasn’t too complicated. As soon as her train left, I headed out to the airport and spent my last night on that trip with room service at the Crowne Plaza.

This trip, however, I decided to give it a chance. Bella had never been there, and seeing that the Hertz office was very close to the train station, I thought maybe renting a car there wouldn’t be so bad. Since the lovely Cisalpino runs between Milan and Basel, I figured that might be a good plan. We had some difficulty finding the rental office, but the staff at the very nice Gallia hotel nearby was quite helpful and explained where it was. We got our car and headed out.

For our return trip, I found that I could get a very good last minute rate at the Gallia, and decided we’d spend the night there, maybe walk to the Duomo and la Scala, and try to find a restaurant I’d heard good things about, and then catch the train in the morning to Basel. Amazingly, everything worked out perfectly! Despite no signage at all in Milan, we ended up on exactly the right street to take us to Milano Centrale. However, the Hertz office was closed — Ferragosto! So I went to the hotel, where the very kind Concierge, Bruno, said it would be no problem to leave the car in front, check in, then return it to the off-hours garage, and he gave me all the details. Even with a bit of rain, we got everything taken care of, got our tickets for the train, and set off to find Obika, a mozzarella bar I’d seen mentioned on dopplr. With the holiday, the streets were practically empty. Until we got to La Scala. All tourists, but probably only 10% of what we’d see on a normal day. Very manageable.

Walked through the Galleria di Emmanuelle Vittorio, around the Duomo, and then found our restaurant.

Mmmmm…. delicious mozzarella di bufala, DOP. With prosciutto di toscana, pasta, tomatoes and spicy sausage. We walked a bit more and found delicious gelato, and then a bit further and found the impressive Castello Sforzesco.

We wandered back to our hotel, enjoying the clean and empty streets and the full moon.

We made it to the hotel at about 10 pm, completely exhausted and looking forward to a nice long quiet night of sleep and a morning bath in the marble bathroom.

When we left this morning, Bruno the concierge asked why we were leaving so soon? Ah not to worry, I’ll definitely be back!

I also found myself falling asleep during the drive. Originally, I was thinking I wanted to leave around 9 am. However, when it turned out that Annie was going to stay with us Thursday night instead of Wednesday, I figured that might not happen. We got home from dinner after dropping Bruno off in Lucca, around 1 am, just in time for a call at work. I managed to keep that relatively short. Then I fixed the issue that work had called me about while we were at dinner. Then we watched the latest episode of Project Runway. That has been our ritual with Bella every Thursday. During the show Annie fell asleep. About 3 am we went to bed. That’s been pretty much the usual time I get to sleep. I try to get done earlier some nights, but often it’s even closer to 4. I generally sleep until 10 or so, and then take a nap in the sun during the day. Once in bed though, Annie did not want to sleep any more. Tossing, turning, sighing… Well, I’ll admit, the new couch may look a lot better than the old one, but the fold-out bed really isn’t very comfortable. I think we should find a futon to put on top of it. I woke up around 5 and she was finally asleep. Around 7 she was awake again, but there was no way I was going to wake up, despite her poking and prodding for the next two hours. Finally at 9 am I went in the bedroom where Bella was watching TV and shut the door, and she complained about being all alone, messing about doing who knows what in the kitchen. I got about 30 minutes of sleep and decided that I should get up after all. At that point, she went to sleep for the next 2 hours.

I have had several friends visit Pieve di Cerreto and most have been completely wonderful. I don’t like to lay down rules, but I’ve realized a few things about traveling with friends:

1. Be where you say you’re going to be, and carry a cell phone. I keep a spare phone to lend to friends that don’t have international calling and it’s always worked out very well. Annie, however, refuses to carry a cell phone. Hence the mixup on Wednesday. I have very little tolerance for that sort of Luddite behavior.

2. Get on the same sleeping schedule. I hate succumbing to jet lag and try to get myself on a normal sleep pattern as early as possible. Usually a night with benedryl helps, and then lots of coffee in the morning. Trying to keep up with work on US time is a bit harder, especially with California, but I like having my days free when I’m in Italy so it’s worth it. However, demanding I be awake during sleeping hours, and then sleeping during daytime hours, wears out my patience fast. Annie really has no excuse here though since she lives in Paris!

3. Enjoy eating. People on special diets, or no-food diets, should not come to Italy with me. One of my favorite things here is the food. Sure there are things I don’t like, and I expect there are things that everyone doesn’t like. But to not eat anything, then complain about how hungry you are, not able to find anything to eat anywhere… Or to demand pizza at 3 in the afternoon — after lunchtime — when we’re all enjoying gelato… And then to not try the food that I make… Well, I won’t be inviting you back to stay with me again.

1 c white flour
1 c polenta
1 T baking powder (we used baking ammonia because that’s all we had… but I think it might have been too much)
4 T butter 3 small eggs
2 T honey
2 T demerara sugar
1 T vanilla sugar
amaretto

Mix the flour, polenta and baking powder; soften the butter and beat until creamy, beat in the eggs and honey. Stir in the flour mixture. Add sugars and amaretto to taste. Bake about 25 min at 170 C.

Dinner, as expected, was wonderful. We had oysters, foie gras, and lunette with truffles and porcini.

Isabella had her favorite prosciutto e melone, and pasta with lobster.